Day 1 - Arrival at Narita & travel to Kyoto

Posted on April 13, 2008
Filed Under Japan, Holidays | 3 Comments

My flight arrived at 9am on Saturday morning March 22. Unfortunately, Sandy’s flight didn’t arrive until almost 4pm so the first 7 hours in Japan I spent wandering Narita’s terminal 1. I have discovered that it is HUGE. I had my nails done, spent half an hour or so on a paid massage chair, another hour or so on the paid internet terminals (100 yen/10 mins) validated my Japan Rail Pass and read a substantial part of my book all while waiting for Sandy.

I also discovered that McDonalds in Japan is not quite the same as in the western world. Apparently they use some sort of wasabi flavouring in the burgers. Ordering was an experience in itself. None of the staff spoke English so I was reduced to pointing to what I hoped was a cheeseburger. It was OK, but it was the last time I ate at McDonalds in Japan.

Then again, I usually avoid Macca’s in Perth too…

When Sandy arrived, we went straight to validate her pass and booked our trains to Kyoto (what was meant to be a 3 and a half our trip) on reserved seats. This first train to Shinigawa was uneventful…we were tired after all that travel.

On arrival at Shinigawa, we had 10 minutes to find the next train track and rushed to ask a steward for directions. He pointed to a train sitting at it’s track and clarified with “Track 24.”

What Sandy and I didn’t realise at the time, is that trains in Japan are VERY timely and the train that was sitting there was actually a few minutes early to be ours. We were meant to wait 3 minutes until the next one arrived but of course, the language barrier prevented the steward from explaining.

We got on the train and then puzzled over why there were people sitting in our reserved seats. Obviously tired and hauling a lot of luggage, we were slow to react and the train left the station with us standing in the full compartment of people. We saw an almost empty car and decided to sit there until another steward came by but before that happened, the train stopped and people streamed in to the previously empty car. We were in someone’s seats!

Apologising for being so rude (Sandy doing it in French causing hysterical laughter on my part), we moved and asked the lady for help (by showing her our tickets and shrugging with a questioning look..lol) She then spoke to her companion, her father, who explained to us in stilted English that we were on the wrong train!! DUN DUN DUN…

Apparently, by getting on the train 3 minutes early, we were now headed in the right general direction but instead of going right to Kyoto, direct, we were now going all stops to Nagoya where we would have to change trains again for Kyoto - extending our trip from 3 and half hours to more like 5!

Sandy was less than impressed…

If fact, she was so tired and worried that she spent the rest of the trip speaking only to my reflection in the window. I think she was confused LOL

We called the hostel from Nagoya to let them know we were going to be late and they agreed to leave the key in the mailbox for us…whew! The rest of the trip to Kyoto was uneventful until we tried to follow the internet provided map to the hostel.

We discovered that a lot of streets in Japan have no names and therefore, do not show on the map. So, when we counted 4 streets down, we were really meant to count 6! Exhausted and desperate, we stopped a family on the street and asked for help. (Showed them the map and shrugged with a questioning look…lol) I pointed to K’s house on the map and looked around with my hands in the air (huh?)

They seemed as confused as we were and eventually stopped two boys on bikes, to in turn ask their help. After a gruelling 5 minutes, one of the boys face lit up and he pointed to a side street nodding vigorously. We thanked them all (Arigato-gozaimas!) and headed off in the direction he indicated.

FINALLY coming upon K’s House Kyoto a full 24 hours after I left Perth and 33 hours after Sandy left Montreal. We were never so happy to see a set of bunk beds and promptly hit the sack.

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Holiday over :(

Posted on April 13, 2008
Filed Under Japan, Holidays | 1 Comment

OK, so I’ve been back from Japan for a week now and I’ve decided that it’s time to update this seemingly silent blog with my adventures and tribulations of inter-continental travel.

I was actually rather clever (I thought), in that I brought a notebook with me on holiday and logged what we did each day along with any silliness that made us laugh or events that we didn’t want to forget.  This will make it much easier to tell you all about the things we did, places we went and anything else that might be of interest.

I haven’t had time yet to resize all of my photos (almost 1000 of them!) so I will add photos as I can. I’ve decided that I will dedicate a post to each of the 15 days I was in Japan so that each one will be fairly accurate and not novel length.

Here we go…

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Welcome back!

Posted on January 10, 2008
Filed Under Australia - The land down under, Japan, Holidays, Breaking news, Things that give me inspiration | 1 Comment

I hope everyone out there enjoyed their holidays as much as I did!

Twas the season (not) to be posting..lol. It was hot and the kids are home for the summer holidays and we’ve spent a lot of time together. And now, sadly… I have returned to work.

We moved offices over the holidays. Now we’re in Nedlands and it makes the drive to work SO much easier. Not necessarily shorter but a lot more pleasant than doing the stop-start thing on the Mitchell Freeway.  There’s something about driving along the coast that still makes me really happy to be here.

In fact, there is on spot in particular on Marmion Ave where you’re approaching Scarborough and the ocean just appears and seems to magically swell to encompass the whole horizon that is still breathtaking to me.

If you live in Perth, I’m sure you know the spot. ;)

Plans for Japan are moving along (thank you to everybody that replied to that post - everything was really helpful) and we’ve booked our accommodation and will be purchasing a JP Rail Pass for transit once we’re there. Sandy has just bought her ticket!! Eep! No turning back now…lol

I’ll be following her lead this weekend. I’ve called the travel agent I normally use and I’m waiting for my options now. I need to decided whether a direct flight is more important or if I want to have a stopover that will get me into Tokyo a bit later. Sandy’s flight arrives at 3:30pm and my direct flight arrives at 9:00am. So I’m looking at sitting around the airport for 6 hours waiting for her. It might be better to have a layover somewhere else to break up the flight and that way I’m only waiting for Sandy a few hours.

It’s all very exciting!!

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Holiday in Japan - help needed!

Posted on November 23, 2007
Filed Under Australia - The land down under, Holidays, Breaking news, They never should have let me be a mother | 5 Comments

For the past couple of months, my sister and I have been tentatively planning to meet in Japan for a two week holiday together. It seems a bit more interesting that either one of us visiting the others home. If I got to Montreal, I’d …

a) feel like I had to bring the kids too ( tripling the cost)
b) Would spend most of the time hanging around doing nothing - watching DVD’s or the like
c) March - April in Canada is still COLD!

If Sandy came here we’d…

a) double the cost of her ticket and double the flying time
b) spend most of the time hanging around doing nothing - watching DVD’s or the like
c) watch Sandy slowly melt away in the March heat

So it seemed a good idea to meet somewhere in the middle, in a place we’d both like to visit and have a holiday together. This way, we get to spend time together but we also get to see new things and do interesting activities. Japan is one of those places that is about halfway, and Sandy has ALWAYS wanted to go there. I would love to go too, so, destination settled. The end of March is cherry blossom season, something I have always wanted to see for myself so the timing is a bonus as well.

Though I’ve passed through Narita airport a few times, I’ve never had enough time to leave and see anything so I have very limited knowledge of Tokyo or the surrounds. All of my information is gleaned online and there is SO MUCH INFO that I find myself a little overwhelmed by the process of creating an itinerary that we can organize accomodation around.

Sandy and I would like to experience as much as we can in the 2 weeks we’ll be there but obviously have to be realistic about dragging our luggage from one ryokan (hotel) to another.  Here’s my dilemna… I don’t know what a central location might be!! We’re not sure about each place we’d like to see, though there are a few we have had picked out for a while. We’ll split the trip into three - 4 or 5 night stays in different areas to allow access to more places and not limit ourselves to the Tokyo area.

So, calling all world-travellers out there!! I would LOVE to hear from people who’ve been to visit or live in Japan to get some suggestions on things not to miss and places to stay that are central to a lot of places of interest.  As you can imagine, we’ll be doing a LOT of sightseeing so anything of interest within walking, bussing or training distance from a central point would be ideal.

Anyone?

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